Synopsis

The Krusty Krab opens on a seemingly average morning and SpongeBob is extremely happy. He gets the Krabby Patties ready and soon gets an order of two Krabby Patties plus an insult from Squidward, which is to no effect. His excitement eventually causes him to accidentally throw his spatula into the ceiling and when trying to get it out, he falls, nearly being injured by scissors and swords.

Upon landing, all is well but he trips on tartar sauce. His thumb drags across the wooden floor and rams into a small slab that breaks in half, giving him a splinter that immediately makes his thumb red and swollen. His weak arms keep him from getting it out and even biting it doesn't work. The customer that ordered earlier is turning impatient and the splinter keeps SpongeBob from holding the spatula needed to serve him. He decides to tie it on his nose and Squidward soon finds out about it and tricks SpongeBob.

SpongeBob with a splinter

Squidward then convinces SpongeBob that he will get sent home by Mr. Krabs if he sees the splinter and flushes his hat and spatula down the toilet. SpongeBob begs Squidward not to get him sent home but is unsuccessful. Squidward also hints that he'll tell Mr. Krabs about the splinter. After Squidward gets his full enjoyment about the situation, Mr. Krabs drives a customer away with his cheap behavior.

SpongeBob calls Patrick to get treated for it, who comes in a fake doctor's uniform to cure the splinter. Patrick's 'treatment' only ends up with the splinter further into SpongeBob's thumb, making it swell more and even infecting it. He then acts like as a fake doctor, saying that his 'shift' is over. SpongeBob soon runs into Mr. Krabs and Squidward and tries to hide the splinter from them. When he holds his thumb up, Squidward faints at the disgusting image. Mr. Krabs soon sees the splinter and takes it out easily, curing SpongeBob and causing confetti and a big eruption of pus from his thumb to impact Mr. Krabs, who holds up an umbrella to it.

Squidward then discovers that he could get sent home early and still get paid by getting injured, called worker's compensation. Accordingly, he injures himself with the cash register harshly, only to find out that his shift had ended two minutes ago.

Release

Reception

As of February 2, 2019, The Internet Movie Database (IMDB) gives this episode a rating of 4.1/10 based on 394 ratings by users.[1] TV.com users give this episode a rating of 4.9/10 based on 181 votes.[2]

Cultural references

When Squidward squishes his "hand" together, pretending to crush the customer's head, this is a reference to something people sometimes do when they are bored. It was started by the comedy scout Kids in the Hall, on an episode of a show with the same name.

Errors

According to "You Don't Know Sponge," SpongeBob is ambidextrous, meaning that he can use both hands. If this were the case, he wouldn't need to use his nose to flip his spatula while his right hand had the splinter.

When Patrick put the garbage compress on SpongeBob's thumb, it turns dark purple and green pus comes out of it. However, when SpongeBob later shows Mr. Krabs and Squidward his thumb, it is red.

When SpongeBob opens the box he took out from his pants, it is halfly in the table, but there clearly isn't a hole there before he puts the box down.

The kitchen ceiling suddenly becomes much higher when SpongeBob realizes his spatula is stuck in it.

At first, SpongeBob makes two Krabby Patties but in a later scene, they disappear.

At first, when Patrick changes, his mouth turns brown. It changes to red in the next shot.

When Patrick puts SpongeBob's foot in his mouth, one can see his shoe and sock is removed. When the scene cuts back to SpongeBob and Patrick, the sock is still on his foot, and when Patrick removes the foot from his mouth, the shoe is also on.

SpongeBob puts the open box full of ingredients on the grill, but when he looks at the Krabby Patty, it's gone.

SpongeBob briefly removes the spatula from the ceiling when he says "Whew, this thing is stuck pretty good," but he doesn't realize it.

When SpongeBob attempts to remove his splinter by removing it, his skin peels off showing a skeleton, despite SpongeBob being a sea sponge which are invertebrates.